With the exception of the Montreal Canadiens, who are in a four-way tie for last place and have become a sideshow to this season’s proceedings with, among other things, civic protests over the linguistic abilities of their interim and face the Detroit Red Wings on Wednesday night, every team in the Eastern Conference has reached the All-Star break, and the playoff picture is coming into focus.

The New York Rangers have the lead with 66 points, followed closely by the Boston Bruins at 64, the Philadelphia Flyers at 63 and the Pittsburgh Penguins at 60. Those are the top contenders in the race for the East’s top seed, with added importance placed on the Atlantic Division race, where the teams that finish second and third almost certainly will wind up locked into a devastating playoff matchup of No. 4 and 5 seeds.

MORE ALL-STAR GAME COVERAGE

“We just play our game and take it each day,” Rangers center Artem Anisimov told Sporting News. “Life will show us everything. After the break, we’ll see. Life will show us what we’re going to be at the end of the season.”

One team that could sneak its way into that mix at the top is the Ottawa Senators, who have 60 points, but have played three more games than the Penguins, four more than the Flyers and five more than the Rangers and Bruins. They also have allowed 160 goals—more than everyone in the NHL save for the Tampa Bay Lightning and Columbus Blue Jackets. Like the four teams behind them tied with 55 points—the Washington Capitals (technically in third place as leaders of the Southeast Division on a tiebreaker), the Florida Panthers, the New Jersey Devils and the Toronto Maple Leafs—the Senators are a flawed team with a chance to make the playoffs thanks to the power of the East being hogged by the big four at the top.

The pressure, as always, is greatest in Toronto, where the Leafs have not been to the playoffs since 2004, and stoked hopes with a flying start to the season. In the back end of a home-and-home series with the New York Islanders on Tuesday night at Nassau Coliseum, the Maple Leafs escaped with a 4-3 overtime win thanks to a four-point performance by Mikhail Grabovski, the 28-year-old center whose performance down the stretch will go a long way toward determining Toronto’s playoff fate. Without big contributions from Grabovski, Toronto basically would be a one-line team. As good as All-Stars Phil Kessel and Joffrey Lupul may be, that would put the Maple Leafs on equal footing with the John Tavares-led Islanders.

“Grabbo’s on a pace for 27-28 goals, and so is Clarke MacArthur,” Toronto coach Ron Wilson said. “We need offense from lots of different sources, and we’re starting to get it.”

Even so, it is hard to see how the Maple Leafs would be competitive in a seven-game series against the beasts of the East. Toronto captain Dion Phaneuf said that the back-to-back games against the Islanders were “two, really, playoff-type games.” The defenseman, a dark horse candidate for the Norris Trophy, referred specifically to the “tight-checking” nature of the home-and-home series, but if he really felt like Tuesday night’s game was played at a playoff level, the sleepy effort that the Leafs turned in for the first 35 minutes would have resulted in Toronto getting its doors blown off by a real contender.

Contrast Phaneuf’s analysis with the words of Martin Brodeur on Tuesday, after the Devils’ 2-1 shootout loss to the disappointing Buffalo Sabres. The future Hall of Famer was quoted by the Newark Star-Ledger as saying, “We’re not an elite team yet. We’re in the middle of the pack.” That is true, and the Devils should know what an elite team looks like, playing in a division with three of them. The misfortune of being in the Atlantic also means that the Devils may face the toughest task to qualify for the playoffs among the teams who cannot yet consider themselves “elite”—New Jersey still has 11 combined games remaining against the Flyers, Penguins and Rangers.

BIGGEST SURPRISE

Regardless of the games in hand possessed by their rivals, who could have seen the Senators in sixth place at the break? Goaltender Craig Anderson has had stretches where he has made Ottawa look like an elite team, but still needs to be more consistent to really make the Senators a contender.

The Senators do have plenty of scoring pop, led by All-Star forwards Daniel Alfredsson, Milan Michalek and Jason Spezza, as well as 47-point defenseman Erik Karlsson. A midseason trade for Phoenix’s Kyle Turris brought in a player who has contributed 13 points in 19 games, and has gotten better since shaking off the rust of his contract holdout in the desert. Another trade, for some back-end help, could be all Ottawa needs to make the leap to the next level.

BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT

After spending up to the salary cap thanks to the open checkbook of new owner Terry Pegula, the Sabres had high hopes for this season, and got off to a 10-5-0 start by November 11. Since then, though, Buffalo has won only 10 of 34 games, reaching the All-Star break as part of the last-place logjam.

Ryan Miller, the Vezina Trophy winner two years ago, is 12-15-2 with an .899 save percentage and 3.07 goals against average, leading to questions about whether he ever really got over the hit to the head he took from Boston’s Milan Lucic. Injuries have been a big problem throughout for the Sabres, as Thomas Vanek, All-Star Jason Pominville and rookie Luke Adam are the only players to appear in all 49 games.

Even when healthy, though, disappointments have abounded, from defenseman Robyn Regher, who has two points and a minus-13 rating in 44 games, to Ville Leino, who with 11 points in 38 games may be the biggest bust of the 2011 free agent class.

THREE QUESTIONS FOR THE SECOND HALF

1. When will Sidney Crosby return again for the Penguins, and if Pittsburgh can get to full health, is there a better team in the East? The Penguins are 10-0-1 when their top four defensemen—Kris Letang, Brooks Orpik, Paul Martin and Zbynek Michalek—all dress.

2. Can Ilya Bryzgalov come up “so humongous big” for the Flyers? The $51 million goalie and breakout star of HBO’s “24/7” did not play in the Winter Classic because of his struggles, a record of 18-10-4 belied by an .895 save percentage and 2.99 goals-against average. Bryzgalov has surrendered three or more goals in six of his last nine starts, and over the course of the season has been largely outplayed by 23-year-old backup Sergei Bobrovsky, who is 11-4-1 with a .919 save percentage and 2.42 goals against average.

3. Who wins the Southeast? The Capitals remain the favorites, but hit the All-Star break even with the Panthers on 55 points, thanks in large part to the fact that Florida has gotten 11 consolation points out of overtime and shootout losses. Washington is gaining steam after an early coaching change from Bruce Boudreau to Dale Hunter, while Florida is still jelling after a dramatic summer roster makeover. Also, with so many intra-divisional games, it is impossible to count out the Winnipeg Jets; they'll have the opportunity to make up their five-point deficit in head-to-head contests.